Thunderbolt Driver For Apple MBP Systems Gets Updated

Experimental Linux kernel code for providing a Thunderbolt driver that works on Apple MacBook Pro systems has been updated and is still hopeful for its eventual mainline kernel inclusion.

Apple hardware requires a special Thunderbolt driver since hot-plugging is handled via the OS X driver rather than the Thunderbolt firmware, as is usually done by other non-Apple hardware. The Apple firmware only initializes cold-plugged devices.

This Apple Thunderbolt support code enables device hot-plugging (sans daisy chaining of Thunderbolt devices) for the Intel "Cactus Ridge" C4 Thunderbolt controller on the MacBook Pro 10,1. With the revised patch, there's now suspend-and-resume support along with other code clean-ups and code refactoring.

More information on this yet to be mainlined Apple Thunderbolt Linux driver developed by an independent developer can be found on the Linux kernel mailing list. I wrote about the original Apple Thunderbolt Linux patch work back in December.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the web-site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience and being the largest web-site devoted to Linux hardware reviews, particularly for products relevant to Linux gamers and enthusiasts but also commonly reviewing servers/workstations and embedded Linux devices. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics hardware drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated testing software. He can be followed via Twitter and Google+ or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.